Penguins (film)
| producer = | writer = David Fowler | narrator = Ed Helms | music = Harry Gregson-Williams | cinematography = | editing = | studio = | distributor = Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | released = | runtime = 76 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = $7.7 million }} Penguins is a 2019 American nature documentary film directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson. The coming-of-age story follows an Adélie penguin named Steve, who joins fellow males in the icy Antarctic spring on a quest to build a suitable nest, find a life partner and start a family. The American release of the film is narrated by Ed Helms. Produced by Disneynature, the film was released in the United States on April 17, 2019, five days before Earth Day. It is the fifteenth nature documentary to be released by Disney under the Disneynature label. The film received positive reviews from critics, who singled out the "beautiful cinematography". Premise In Antartica, Steve, an Adelie Penguin is preparing to start a family, he tries all day to impress a mate, but fails. as he is ready to give up, he meets Adeline, a penguin who didn't find a mate yet. Together, they start to love each other. Sometime later, Adeline has two eggs. Steve goes off with the other males to look for fish, while Adeline huddles in her eggs in a rock nest. Later, as the other males head back to the colony, Steve, who didn't realized he was the only one left, is still looking for fish. He is chased out by a Killer Whale, and luckily he escapes. As he makes his way back. a blizzard covers the colony, including Adeline and the eggs, they, along with Steve, who was still in the cold, survived. As time passes, the eggs hatch into chicks, and Steve is excited by his new children. But when it's Adeline's turn to go fishing, the chicks want food. Steve has no idea what he is doing. As the chicks grow, one of them is bullied by a Skua, who it along with others, are out searching for food to feed their chicks, Steve comes to the rescue. and it flies off, Steve has food in his belly, which makes the chicks chase him, finally. Steve feeds the chicks (which one of them barfs). As the months go by, the family is hunted by a Leopard Seal, one of the chicks play dead and is lucky, the seal leaves, and the family reunites, the family goes their separate ways. The chicks start a new life with the others, Adeline bids farewell to Steve till the next year goes by, and Steve takes a walk in the Antarctic beach, congratulating himself for his first year of being a father. Release The film was released in the United States on April 17, 2019. Reception Box office In the United States and Canada, Penguins was released alongside Breakthrough, and was projected to gross $5–7 million from 1,800 theaters in its five-day opening weekend. The film made $503,000 on its first day and $456,000 on its second. The film ended up underperforming, grossing just $2.3 million in its opening weekend (and a total $3.3 million over the five days), finishing outside the top 10. In its second weekend the film fell 50% to $1.1 million, finishing 10th. Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 7.06/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Disneynature: Penguins plays up its subjects' adorable appeal with a beautifully filmed documentary that adds plenty of anthropomorphic entertainment value for young viewers." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 78% and a "definite recommend" of 52%. Variety s Courtney Howard called Penguins a "sweet, sentimental Earth Day documentary" and wrote "Instead of bombarding the audience with factoids and heavy scientific terminology, it lets a poignant narrative unspool — one with an engaging, highly accessible and hugely entertaining underdog hero's journey." References External links * * Category:Disneynature films Category:American documentary films Category:Films directed by Alastair Fothergill Category:2019 films Category:Films about penguins Category:Films set in Antarctica